Alberta has been forced to send $ billions per year to Quebec to save the Constitution. $13 billion this year for dear old Quebec...

So all they have to do is to stop that madness and in 4 or 5 years they have that fund that Parsad blames them for.

Cheers!

Cardboard

I'm not using Quebec as a comparison. Quebec has more advantages than any other province and continues to suck at the Federal teet! The whole country within a country stuff bugs me as much as it bugs you. But there was nothing stopping Alberta from having $40-50B sitting in a provincial austerity fund...they were on track for that until they started doling out the cash, cutting tax rates and then borrowing in downcycles.

God knows we aren't perfect out here on the West Coast, but if you want to call a spade a spade, don't gloss over Alberta's own stupidity! Cheers!

Interesting table, on page 5From day 1 through to 1949 (44 years), Alberta was the LARGEST have-not RECIPIENT province (by far) in the land. And on day 1, Alberta received MORE THAN 3x/capita what Newfoundland received when it entered confederation.

Alberta has been forced to send $ billions per year to Quebec to save the Constitution. $13 billion this year for dear old Quebec...

So all they have to do is to stop that madness and in 4 or 5 years they have that fund that Parsad blames them for.

Cheers!

Cardboard

Cardboard - I agree with your point on equalization payments but Parsad is also correct that Alberta should have saved more when times were good, both can be (and are) true. The government should be countercyclical such that they run a surplus and save during the boom in order to afford themselves the luxury to run a deficit when things go bust, especially in a province with such a cyclical economy - this is true independent of one's view on equalization payments.

You guys are funny! Have you looked at other provinces balance sheets and income statements that do not have as much cyclicality. Ontario anyone?

The problem right now is not credit rating, nor solvability. That is not what is causing the employment problem or outcry.

You guys are trying to lecture a province to exhibit financial discipline at a time when other provinces are strangling it by preventing its oil from being shipped both east and west which reduces price received and quantity while they still abuse of Alberta's largest by pulling $13 billion/year from it for Quebec alone. This is a farce!

You guys are funny! Have you looked at other provinces balance sheets and income statements that do not have as much cyclicality. Ontario anyone?

The problem right now is not credit rating, nor solvability. That is not what is causing the employment problem or outcry.

You guys are trying to lecture a province to exhibit financial discipline at a time when other provinces are strangling it by preventing its oil from being shipped both east and west which reduces price received and quantity while they still abuse of Alberta's largest by pulling $13 billion/year from it for Quebec alone. This is a farce!

Cardboard

You've actually completely mischaracterized and missed my point - I'm impressed by how much your defensiveness on behalf of Alberta has eroded your reading comprehension, it's almost admirable. Further, I said nothing about other provinces nor is it relevant to my point. If your neighbor does something stupid, it might make you feel better, but it doesn't make you smarter.